Monday, December 29, 2014

Mom Entrepreneurs Unite!

Hey everybody! I hope you all had wonderful holiday weeks! We had one of our best Christmases ever and so much fun throwing Essley's first birthday party (more on that soon). Yesterday was her actual birthday, which means I have now officially been a mom for an entire year. Crazy.

As far as being a mom goes, I still can't claim to know what I'm doing - but I certainly have learned a lot. And I've come to find out that one of the most important things that any mother can do is to connect with other moms and find ways to support one another. This is especially key when it comes to continuing to pursue our dreams in our careers. Life doesn't stop at motherhood - and although moms are often busy and with lots on our plates, there is no reason why we can't come up with fantastic ideas for new projects, inventions, or companies, or new ways to make our current businesses grow. In many ways, motherhood inspires some of the most innovative ideas of all - we're always trying to identify solutions for making life with babies/toddlers/kids easier, right? If we can come together with other like-minded mothers and encourage one another in our endeavors, imagine what we can accomplish! This is why I'm so excited about a new community I recently joined called MUMZY.

MUMZY (www.mumzy.com) is, in simple terms, a site where moms bring ideas or projects in search of funding, help and support in turning them into a reality. Like other crowdfunding platforms, it's a place to raise capital to launch and grow businesses - but it is specifically for moms. How cool is that? And while most other crowdfunding sites lack a sense of community, MUMZY's goal is to build a strong community where moms can pledge donations and offer suggestions and ideas to other peoples' projects. I really love this concept, and strongly feel that community support among moms is crucial to our collective success. Whether starting a company, developing an invention or creating a non-profit, MUMZY also helps ensure that moms have the right resources to bring their ideas to life. On top of that, it provides small business development resources to the community so a mom's journey to entrepreneurship doesn't end when her funding goals are met.

I've been having lots of fun exploring the MUMZY site and getting to know it better, and I've learned that posting a project it easy. You just go to the site with your idea and post it via a simple form, then share your idea with your friends and family over the campaign duration to get them excited about what you're working on. Then once you've reached your funding goal, you can work with the MUMZY team to develop what the next steps and resources are in taking your idea and turning it into a reality. And along the way, you can connect with fellow moms for feedback and suggestions. You can also browse MUMZY and contribute to other moms' projects that you love. By supporting each other, we have an infinitely higher chance of success then going at it alone. I've seen this first hand and stand behind it 100%.

MUMZY also feels very personal to me, which I love. It's a new platform that is gaining momentum, but is still in its infancy stages, and the founders welcome any and all feedback from users. They are totally open to your suggestions and grateful for your input! If you are a mom with an idea (or even just want to support other like-minded moms in their goals as entrepreneurs), I highly recommend creating an account. And if you have a project, post it! I have a few ideas I'm thinking of posting there (one having to do with mom and baby fashion, hence the top image in this post) and I'd love to see yours as well. If you need more incentive, the first 100 people who post a project to MUMZY will have a chance to win $1,000 back towards their project's funding goal.

Those of you who are moms, have you ever had project or business ideas that you were never able to make realities? Or do you own a business but want to take it further? I'd love for you to join me there!

Thank you for supporting Bubby and Bean by allowing me to post occasional sponsored content. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.